Description:

Description:


A coming-of-age story set in Angola in the period leading up to the
colony's independence, Saudade focuses
on a Goan immigrant family caught between complicity in Portuguese rule, and their
dependence on the Angolans who are their servants. The title (saudade means 'melancholy' in
Portuguese) speaks to the longing for homeland that haunts its characters, and
especially the young girl who is the book's protagonist and narrator. 

Suneeta
Peres da Costa's novella captures with intense lyricism the difficult
relationship between the daughter and her mother, and the ways in which their
intimate world opens up questions about domestic violence, the legacies of Portuguese
slavery, and the end of empire. The young woman's intellectual awakening unfolds
into a growing awareness of the lies of colonialism, and the violent political ruptures
that ultimately lead to her father's death, and their exile.

'[Her] voice is unique: neither childlike nor grownup, but instead
by turns gravely articulate, wildly poetic, and hilariously original…a haunting
and magical vision of childhood.' Austin
Chronicle